Saturday, July 16, 2011

Was thinking about this creepy photo and it made me wonder about a Haunt where the Haunter goes a little mad and rigs his display to do horrible things to visitors.

Like this wagon would be filled with a few inches of fake blood, and a wobbly plank would dump handfuls of people into it. Imagine screaming kids and their parents protesting in shock and horror as they become covered in blood, face-t0-face with some really disturbing props. That safety zone which we all know exists when we see a Halloween display or haunted attraction would be immediately gone. I'd be thinking "This is it: I'm about to get an axe to the cranium."

So what else would the Mad Haunter do? Live bugs? Rats? (within that first hour of operation, that is - before someone calls the cops).

There's one haunt that comes close: McKamey Manor. I've seen many videos of that haunt, it just looks sadistic the way they treat patrons. I mean, they're spitting blood on them, putting prop guns to their heads, dropping live snakes on the guest's heads - the guy who owns the haunt MUST be messed up.

Of course say something like this did happen. That one event would be associated for every haunt in America. The media would grab it and put fear into all trick or treaters giving Haunters a bad name. Look what happened in the 70s

Jeremy said: I think those madagascar hissing roaches would be a fantastic way to go to far. Totaly harmless critters, but terrifying if the haunter somehow dropped them from above. I bet their little sharp legs would get tangled in the trick or treaters hair! Then the haunter would have to do battle with peta as well as the pissed off parents : )

Well, assuming the crazy haunter isn't out for blood or lives... just a good scare, then:

As someone mentioned, drop some live (put non-poisonous) snakes into the mix.

Set up an electric chair that actually gives a jolt (just enough to hurt/scare). I would even add a switch that can be thrown to start the shock... I guarantee some goofy kids would do it, thinking it was just a prop.

Find some real animal carcasses (road kill?) and stash them throughout the haunt to add that unique smell to the ambiance.

That would be an awesome high point to a haunted house where with each step the tension and fear mounts. You get to some dead end with a half-open cabinet that you can't help but pull all the way open. When you do, all these body parts rain down on you. :-D

I've thought about this stuff too. Maybe a long, dark claustrophobic corridor, you can only go through single file. Then, a haunt actor silently grabs the person at the end of the line, and pulls him through a hole in the wall. His friends soon realise he is missing. The actors take him into a hidden room, and plop him down on a surgery table with a whole lot of terrifying scalpels and such. They shine a bright light in his eyes, and just when he is about to soil himself, they give him a run-though of how HE is going to help scare his friends. They dress him up in fake blood, give him a large axe, and take him to a place where the rest of his friends will be coming through soon.

So they are making their way though a small dark room, when suddenly their best friend bursts through the closet, axe in hand, drenched in blood, trying to kill them. Their friend who helped them though primary school, high school, who has always been there for them, now has an axe raised above their head, ready to murder them.

Keep the haunt almost completely silent. Then, they walk past that wagon, and (like you said), get covered in fake blood. Suddenly, as it splashes on them, they get blasted with sound. A thousand screeches and wails and howls and growls, coming from speeakers hidden all around them. Full volume. AC/DC concert speakers.And lights, huge bright ones. And some really, really realistic gory props.

All at once, blood dumped on you, enough sound to permanently damage your hearing, and blinding bright lights showing disemboweled and mutilated bodies in full vision. I'd never be coming back.

You know, I'm such a girly-girl when it comes to actually haunting my home that I wouldn't dare try anything like this. Plus, it's not my style. *MY* real curiosity would lie in wondering just how said Mad Haunter would live in his own neighborhood the other 364 days, lol. Sure, if you are super anti-social then maybe it wouldn't be a big deal, but like...I wonder how the neighborhood would then view this person?

If you ever try it, Rot, you already have street cred: your wife. :) Even after trying something crazy like this, they'd see you are a married guy and think, "He can't be all THAT crazy".

..........unless she was used in your crazy haunt, too. :D I guess I just find this a really interesting study in sociology, lol.

I'm thinking a trap door to drop someone down into a pool of fake blood of some sort with fake body parts and heads. Could probably add some snakes into the pool.(non-poisonous of course) When they fall in,have bright lights kick on with speakers blasting screams of people in terror.then to top it off,have an actor appear out of nowhere holding a chainsaw roaring above is head going towards the helpless guest.And have a plexiglass floor so the people above can watch the whole thing.....

Haunt price of admission:$10(and a day in court for you)Reaction of the randomly picked visitor:Priceless

What might be interesting - if the haunter did a one-way haunt. People could come in, but the final door leads to a room that only the haunter has access to. Once a few families get trapped inside, the tension would get interesting.

And the haunted would have a fun with the ensnared patrons from his safety booth, of course.

I wouldn't do any of that if I went off the deep end. I'd just make realistic scenes of real dead people. The real fear is the fear of death, right? The thing that keeps me from going off the deep end is that I know exactly how to horrify a person. I will never do it though. I prefer the spirit of Halloween, and it's innocence.

My mom once told me that back when she was in high school she went to a haunted attraction that got away with a lot of "questionable" scares.She said you would go through in groups of about 10 and they would sit you down on this long bench in complete darkness. Just when you were getting used to it, they would flip the lights on in front of you and standing there was an entire firing squad with rifles aimed at your row. You would here "Fire!" and they would all fire loud blanks. As if that was not shocking enough, she said that ran a line of electric fence wire across the top of the bench so when the rifles fired, you felt a jolt like something had just hit you.

So you're fine with corpses tied up and gagged by witches, or bursting from graves or spewing black dried innards, but a discussion on someone going off the deep end and dirtying some costumes with fake blood or bugs is too much?

That was a really neat memory, J.P.So crazy to me. I'm fascinated by the safety zone aspect of haunted attractions. We know nothing will happen. No one will even TOUCH us, but the howls and screams you hear at these places are hysterical.

I think it's about controlling and manipulating children who visit your home that my fellow anonymous has an issue with.All home haunts deal in fantasy and myth and legend. If you were to set up a haunt was going to truly terrify people, mostly unsuspecting kids, that would cross the line in a terrible manner.Especially if you were in a safe area, which implies that you were "safe" while others were not.It's uber creepy, and not good creepy.Make believe witches and corpses are fantasy. Some guy setting up a haunt to mess with little kids while hiding in his basement is too much. Remember Jurassic Park, where the Chaos doc wouldn't sign off on the park b/c bad stuff always finds a way to happen even in the most controlled circumstances? Yeah, you don't want to play with (mostly) kids lives.

Sorry, but we are two different people!I don't feel the need to stop enjoying your blog because of this post, because I do believe in freedom of speech, etc. Plus it is your blog and you may post whatever you wish.I guess your IP label-er does not work very well.Cheers!

If you think commenting on a blog is dictating content, I guess we have differing opinions on control. If I had a blog and people commented, I'd be interested in their opinions, or not. I should come with the territory of the internet. I guess it upsets you others don't have the same thoughts as you.

You did lose a fan in whoever the other anonymous is. If you think we are the same poster, you are mistaken. I am quite post-y, and that guy was obviously done.

Have a great day, and can't wait to see your Halloween work. I enjoy it every year and it is very inspiring.We both have better things to do in our day at this point, so peace out.

Holy crap Mr. Rot, I can't believe you stir up such debate. The whole point of this post to just "IMAGINE" what someone would do if they finally lost it. Its not like you or we were atually planning to do it.....it's called "IMAGINATION".

Probably the same person who complained the you were doing too many "stick people"....

Yeah, I wasn't trying either.To me it was just a fascinating topic. Like making up a ghost story.

The entire Horror industry (haunted attractions, movies, literature...) deals with such issues. Stuff that could be so offensive to some, and so much fun to others.

But I really welcome people's opinions. That was the point of the post.

I labeled this guy's anonymous IP address back when he told me I should stick to Halloween material and not stuff like a guy talking about his Creationism theories/Ancient Archeology. I figured he'd be back.

Wow, never thought id see a Pumpkinrot flame war :D. On the question, I like the idea of a floor trap. The guest walk in single file down a long, narrow hallway. The floor gives way, droping most of the guests to a pool of (fake) blood!!! The one guy left is the one in front, who turns around to realize he's all alone...(cue evil laugh)

One year a kid across the street from my parents house had a bloody scarecrow (tied to a rope) that he threw off his roof at trick or treaters. It was stuffed with clothes so it had some weight to it and would splat in front of people. Some of the neighbors complained that it was dangerous.. but a majority of the kids loved it. He got some good screaming.

It wasn't disturbing at all.. but it was great to see somebody throw caution to the wind and try something new.

Before my high school time, back in the late 70's or early 80's, my high school put on a halloween scare trail in the woods on their property. My aunt, the biology teacher went on it. The students dug out a 3-4 foot hole in the middle of the trail, covered it with leaves etc.. and when she walked over, of course she fell in. I don't remember hearing if they had filled or not with anything to cushion the blow. She laughs about it now, but she never went on the trail again for the few years they had it.

Has anyone seen the prank on youtube where recreation trail goers are running/biking, and they come upon a hole filled with leaves, and water? It's pretty funny to watch, but I would want to be warned that something like that would happen somewhere along that kind of haunt.